At the age of twelve years, the human body is at its most vigorous. It has yet to reach its full size and strength, and its owner his or her full intelligence; but at this age the likelihood of death is least. Earlier, we were infants and young children, and consequently more vulnerable; later, we shall undergo a progressive loss of our vigor and resistance which, though imperceptible at first, will finally become so steep that we can live no longer,however well we look after ourselves, and however well society, and our doctors,look after us.
This decline in vigor with the passing of time is called ageing. It is one of the most unpleasant discoveries which we all make that we must decline in this way, that if we escape wars, accidents and disease we shall eventually "die of old age", and that this happens at a rate which differs little from person to person, so that there are heavy odds in favor of our dying between the ages of sixty-five and eighty. Some of us will die sooner, a few will live longer--on into a ninth or tenth decade. But the chances are against it, and there is a virtual limit on how long we can hope to remain alive, however lucky and robust we are.
Normal people tend to forget this process unless and until they are reminded of it. We are so familiar with the fact that man ages, that people have for years assumed that the process of losing vigor with time, of becoming more likely to die the older we get, was something self-evident, like the cooling of a hot kettle or the wearing-out of a pair of shoes. They have also assumed that all animals, and probably other organisms such as trees, or even the universe itself, must in the nature of things "wear out".
Most animals we commonly observe do in fact age as we do, if given the chance to live long enough; and mechanical systems like a wound watch, or the sun, do in fact an out of energy in accordance with the second law of thermodynamics (熱力學(xué)) (whether the whole universe does so is a moot point at present). But these are not analogous to what happens when man ages. A run-down watch is still a watch and can be rewound. An old watch, by contrast, becomes so worn and unreliable that it eventually is not worth mending. But a watch could never repair itself--it does not consist of living parts, only of metal, which wears away by friction. We could,at one time, repair ourselves--well enough, at least, to overcome all but the most instantly fatal illnesses and accidents.
Between twelve and eighty years we gradually lose this power; an illness which at twelve would knock us over, at eighty can knock us out, and into our grave.
If we could stay as vigorous as we are at twelve, it would take about 700 years for half of us to die, and another 700 for the survivors to be reduced by half again.
1. Which of the following statements is INCORRECT?
A. Our first twelve years represent the peak of human development.
B. People usually are unhappy when reminded of ageing.
C. Normally only a few of us can live to the eighties and nineties.
D. People are usually less likely to die at twelve years old.
2. The word "it" in the last sentence of Paragraph Two refers to
A. remaining alive until 65.
B. remaining alive after 80.
C. dying before 65 or after 80.
D. dying between 65 and 80.
3. What is ageing?
A. It is usually a phenomenon of dying at an old age.
B. It is a fact that people cannot live any longer.
C. It is a gradual loss of vigor and resistance.
D. It is a phase when people are easily attacked by illness.
4. What do the examples of watch show?
A. Normally people are quite familiar with the ageing process.
B. All animals and other organisms undergo the ageing process.
C. The law of thermodynamics functions in the ageing process.
D. Human's ageing process is different from that of mechanisms.
5. Which of the following best fits the style of this passage?
A. Argumentation.
B. Exposition.
C. Narration.
D. Description.
【文章概要】
本文圍繞“衰老”這一話題展開敘述。首段指出人體生命力變化的拋物線趨勢，12歲最為旺盛;第2-3段講到了人類衰老的不可抗拒性;最后一段以例證說明人類和手表等機械裝置的“衰老”過程有較大的區(qū)別。
【答案解析】
1.[A]細(xì)節(jié)推斷題。根據(jù)各選項內(nèi)容定位到第1、2段。根據(jù)第1段第2句可知，人在長到12歲時身體各個方面包括身材、力量和智力都還有待發(fā)展和完善，所以A(人在12歲發(fā)育達(dá)到頂峰)的說法不正確，故為本題答案。根據(jù)第1段第2句句末的內(nèi)容可推測。D的表述與原文一致，可排除;根據(jù)第2段第2旬及第3段首句可知，B的表述正確，可排除;第2段段末指出：活到90歲以上的人很少，可能性也很小，故C正確，可排除。
2.[B]代詞指代題。第2段段末說“有些人逝去得早些，而少數(shù)人可以活到90多歲至100歲”，it所在句出現(xiàn)的But以及下文“我們所能期望的壽命實際上是有限度的”提示，it應(yīng)該指代前面出現(xiàn)的“長壽”。故B正確。
3.[C]根據(jù)ageing及各選項內(nèi)容定位到第1、2段。細(xì)節(jié)概括題。根據(jù)第2段第1句對ageing的概括以及第l段第3句后半部分對ageing的詮釋，可知C為本題答案。A、D實際上是衰老過程的兩個方面，因此A、D表述都是相對片面的，可排除;通過文中的敘述可知，衰老是一個過程，而不僅是一個簡單事實，故B項不恰當(dāng)，也可排除。
4.[D]細(xì)節(jié)推斷題。根據(jù)題干中的watch定位到第4段。第4段中間部分指出：
破損的手表也有不能修理的時候，由于自身的金屬構(gòu)造，手表不能像人類的身體那樣進(jìn)行自我修復(fù)，而人類的自我修復(fù)還可以在一定程度上緩解病痛、延長生命。這就表明人類和手表等機械裝置的“衰老”過程有較大的區(qū)別，故選D。A、B與手表的例子無關(guān).可首先排除;雖然熱力學(xué)定律適用于手表等機械裝置，但文中例子并沒有傳達(dá)出C的意思，故C也可排除。
5.[B]文體判斷題。本文從衰老起始時間入手，主要介紹了衰老過程的相關(guān)內(nèi)容。文中通過引用一些數(shù)據(jù)和使用對比等手段，說明了衰老的過程、必然性及其與機械裝置損耗的區(qū)別所在。據(jù)此分析，本文屬于說明文體，B為本題答案。A是本題的干擾項，文中沒有出現(xiàn)獨立的論點以及通過論據(jù)證明論點的表述，故將其劃歸議論文體不恰當(dāng)，排除A。
